Water is essential for daily life, especially for keeping the body hydrated and healthy. Dirty water can pose significant health risks, but municipal filtration or purification systems generally remove such contaminants before they reach the home, but people who camp or who travel abroad may benefit from a portable water filtering system to prevent sickness and gastrointestinal disorders like travelers diarrhea. Water filters help remove viruses and various protozoa that may cause illness or disease. UV sterilization units can also disinfect unsafe water. What's more, most filter-based purification systems in the market are based on “active” filtration, whereby the filters (designed in the cap) work by actively filtrating source water during consumption. This restricts the use of functional ingredients in the water as active filtration will remove or eliminate the functional components, leading to deterioration of the filter.
Conventionally, many individuals carry drink bottles or other containers that contain water or other potable beverages. However, in some situations it may be difficult for an individual to carry a large enough supply of potable water or other beverage for a specific activity, and it may be difficult for an individual to obtain potable water in certain locations. For example, backcountry enthusiasts, endurance athletes, military personnel, and others that travel in remote areas for extended periods of time and without access to clean drinking water may not be able to carry a sufficiently large supply of potable water or other beverage to maintain proper hydration. It is common for such persons to rely on water filters, which require time-consuming operation and may take up storage volume that is at a premium. It is also common for such persons to rely on water additives, such as iodine, to purify drinking water; however, such additives are often undesirable due to the taste they impart to the drinking water.
Hydration with water and electrolyte containing fluids is also important to professional and amateur athletes, as well as those with medical conditions, which require monitoring of fluid intake. Sport, travel and general merchandise stores commonly sell articles for holding water and hydrating fluids for use during a variety of activities to enable the user to keep one's body healthfully hydrated, ward off thirst and improve sports performance. These fluid carrying articles (water bottles) are used for, and during, activities from leisurely walking and everyday use to hiking and more endurance sports or activities such as running, biking, in-line skating, triathlons and adventure racing among others.
However, every person loses electrolytes at different rates from said activities. As such, each person's body requires a rate of hydration and electrolyte replacement that will largely be dictated by various factors including but not limited to; 1) the rate of fluid and electrolyte loss, which is largely dependent on an individual's biological and psychological predisposition during said activity, 2) the environmental conditions, including altitude, temperature, etc., where said activity is taking place, and 3) length and duration of said activity.
Although various hydrating fluid containers are known, they each suffer from drawbacks of one sort or another. For example, most water bottle solutions in the market are designed to adhere to the basic aesthetic and functional demands of keeping one's body hydrated. However, there are no known fluid containers that address the problem of accounting for fluid and electrolyte loss and intake by the user. In addition, few solutions exist whereby a fluid container can store and dispense a number of supplemental components such as electrolyte packages into the liquid. However, most such electrolyte delivery solutions are through disposable caps. Therefore, given that under-hydration can seriously compromise the performance of an athlete, a quantitative solution that addresses fluid and electrolyte intake/loss with a non-disposable electrolyte built-in storage and dispensing system is desirable.